This invention relates generally to vehicle body work and more particularly to a hand held tool which is used to crimp the flanged edge of a vehicle door panel onto the door frame while the door frame remains hinged to the vehicle body.
During the process of repairing damaged doors of automobiles and other vehicles, it is necessary to place the door panel or skin on the door frame and then crimp the panel edge onto the frame. The edge of the door panel is normally flanged so that the flange can be crimped to the frame in order to secure the panel in place.
At present, it is necessary for the entire door frame to be removed from the vehicle in order to provide enough room for crimping of the door panel onto the edge of the frame which is hinged to the vehicle body. There have not been tools available that allow the door panel to be crimped to the hinged edge of the frame, primarily because of the space limitations that are presented at the junction between the fender panel and the door panel. Considerable time and labor are required to remove and replace the entire door under the best of conditions. In recent years, this problem has been compounded by the trend for larger numbers of wires to be extended to the door. Power operated door locks and windows must be wired through the hinges to the doors, and the same is true for the wiring of other equipment such as audio systems. In order to remove and replace the door, all of the wiring that extends through the hinges must be disconnected and then reconnected when the door is replaced, and this greatly complicates the job of door panel repair.
It is thus evident that automobile door panel repair could be greatly simplified and made more economical by the provision of a tool that is able to crimp a door panel without the need to remove the door. The present invention provides such a tool and thus represents a significant practical improvement in the field of vehicle body repair.
In accordance with the invention, a manual crimping tool includes two hand levers that have handles at one end and jaws at the other end. The levers are connected near their jaw ends by a slip joint pivot connection. One jaw carries an L-shaped crimping head which may be fitted through the thin gap between the hinged side of the door and the adjacent fender panel. The other jaw carries a backing head which is brought against the exterior surface of the door panel in opposition to the crimping head. When the handles are then squeezed to close the jaws, the crimping tab on the crimping head bends the flanged edge of the door panel and crimps it onto the door frame. At the same time, a flat backing plate on the backing head presents a large surface which spreads out the crimping force and thus minimizes marring of the visible surface of the door panel.
Other and further objects of the invention, together with the features of novelty appurtenant thereto, will appear in the course of the following description.